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Thursday, April 9, 2015

It’s a “Master-full” Week for the McGladrey Classic “Family”

One
of the most prestigious golf tournaments kicks off this week – The Masters in Augusta.
And we’re excited to see quite a few McGladrey Classic “family” members
participating in this year’s tournament. Team McGladrey Member Zach
Johnson is in good company with past McGladrey Classic winners Ben
Crane (2011), Chris
Kirk (2013) and Robert
Streb (2014). This is the first Masters that Robert Streb will
participate in, and he secured the spot with his win at last year’s McGladrey
Classic! Boy are we proud!

Teeing
off this morning (Thurs., April 9), Ben started the day at 8:18 a.m. ET from
tee #1; Robert tees off at 11:25 a.m. from tee #1; Zach tees at 12:09 p.m. from tee # 1; and Chris is at 12:31 p.m. from
tee #1. Best of luck to all our “guys”!

Each
year, Masters week brings about great articles, videos, shared memories and
terrific photo ops from the players and fans. The Masters’ website posted an article
about the famous Ike tree this week, which memorializes the old tree while
introducing the new one being grown which will eventually be planted on
the grounds of Augusta National. In February 2014, a historic ice storm hit
Georgia, causing extensive damage to the original tree. Now, its cross-section
is in a glass-enclosed case and will be presented to the Eisenhower
Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. To continue the
Eisenhower Tree legend, two grafts and a seedling from the original tree were
preserved – just another way the game of golf honors and preserves history. You
can read the full article and view the related images and videos here.

Another
great article released this week shares players’ first impressions of Augusta
National. The PGA
TOUR article features memories from our very own Zach and fellow Team
McGladreyMemberDavis
Love III. Below are their
excerpts from the article. But you can also check
out the entire article to read their first impressions from “our
boys” and some of their fellow PGA TOUR professionals, including Webb Simpson,
Billy Horschel and Rickie Fowler – just to name a few.

ZACH JOHNSON: I was there as a
spectator in 2001, when I was on the mini-tours. Vaughn Taylor is a good buddy
and is from there. He had tickets. I remember walking the golf course, all 18
holes, basically twice that day. I know I saw Jose (Maria Olazabal) skipping
shots off of the pond on 16. The Hooters Tour had a week off and we had been
playing in the Carolinas. I didn’t get to play the golf course for the first
time until Tuesday of tournament week (in 2005). I didn’t have an opportunity
to go early. I was living in Orlando, and the week before I was the defending
champion at the BellSouth, which was a 54-hole tournament that ended on Monday
(because of weather).

DAVIS LOVE III: We played when
we were at Carolina. We won the Augusta tournament so we got to go a whole
bunch of us and play. So that would have been 83-ish. Oh, we were a bunch of
college kids. We were dumbfounded. I don't think I'd ever played greens that
smooth or fairways that perfect. Back then it was, maybe, Muirfield, was the
only place that was that good. So it was incredible. Scared to hit the ground.
Scared to say the wrong thing but it was fun. That was a big goal of our team.
We wanted to win that tournament so we could go play.

What’s
your fondest memory of watching or even attending the Master’s? Share your
memories here in the comment section!

We
look forward to a great week of golf! Check back next week for more updates on
Team McGladrey and the 2015 McGladrey Classic (Nov.
16-22)!